5 Gay Male Athletes

It's difficult to find any athletes who are willing to admit that they might be gay, so finding this list of five gay male athletes wasn't entirely simple. Unfortunately, the testosterone-fueled nature of professional sports has made it a sort of taboo to be openly gay, so many athletes who might have these feelings simply choose to hide them for the sake of being accepted by the rest of their team mates. Despite these tribulations, the following 5 gay male athletes decided to let the world know about their sexuality in hopes of opening up a whole new mentality about open sexuality in this world of human competition.

Daniel Kowalski. This swimmer from Australia is best known for obtaining medals in the 200, 400, and 1500 meter freestyle events during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. He came out of the closet in 2006 following a battle with severe depression, and openly cited that part of his difficult in coming to terms with his sexuality was the scarcity of gay male athletes on the professional level.

Blake Skjjellerup. This speed skater from New Zealand is one of the most open gay male athletes. He told his story of discovering his sexuality to Australia's "DNA" magazine and walked into the Vancouver Olympics, which he competed in, while holding hands with his boyfriend. While he might not have the best record as any other men in his field, he's definitely a great model when it comes to gay male athletes who are forthright about their sexual preference.

Ian Roberts. Despite having retired from rugby in the 1990s, Ian still stands as the only rugby player to come out of the closet. During his impressive ten-year career, he played on numerous teams, including North Queensland Cowboys, South Sydney Rabbitohs, and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles. After hanging up his uniform for good, this buff Australian has studied acting and even fulfilled a number of minor roles in many Asutralian films.

Donal Og Cusack. With a hard-to-pronounce name, this Irish curler is definitely one of the most obscure gay male athletes. Much like Kowlaski, he's very outspoken about the stigma of being a gay male athlete, and encourages other such men to not be ashamed about their sexuality. He talkes more about his views on this issue in his autobiography, entitled "Come What May," in which he first stated that he was gay and later won the Irish Book of the Year Award for.

John Amaechi. One of the most gay male athletes in American sports history, he came out of the closet five years after his retirement, much to chagrin of current basketball superstars like Tim Hardaway. Despite this, he's a respected philanthropist, heading up the charity Amaechi Basketball Centres Foundation, and is a best-selling author with his autobiography "Man In The Middle." It is in this book that he discusses the struggle he faced, being a professional male athlete who also happened to be gay.